Increasingly, the consumer market is demanding portable electronic devices, such as personal digital assistants (PDA), MP3 players, portable storage systems, advanced wireless telephones, cameras, and other handheld devices. Many of these devices can include one or more secondary batteries that can be charged and re-charged during the life of the device. Moreover, many of these electronic devices can include a charging circuit that is electrically coupled to a secondary battery to allow recharging.
Conventional charging circuits can require additional circuitry, such as one or more additional resistors, one or more field effect transistors, etc., that may increase the cost of a portable electronic device. Further, the additional circuitry can reduce the efficiency of charging a secondary battery. Such circuits may consume more than a negligible quantity of power during the charge and thereby, increase the time and power required to recharge the secondary battery.
As such, an improved system and method for charging a secondary battery is desirable.